RIEBセミナー RIEB Seminar

日時 2014年7月23日(水)午後3時30分から
会場 神戸大学経済経営研究所 会議室(新館2階)
対象 教員、院生、および同等の知識をお持ちの方
使用言語 英語
備考 論文のコピーは共同研究推進室にご用意いたします。

3:30pm~

報告者 Eric WEESE
所属 イェール大学経済学部
論題 Inefficiency and Self-Determination: Counterfactual Evidence for Meiji Japan
概要 Does the exercise of the right of self-determination lead to inefficiency? This paper considers a set of centrally planned municipal mergers during the Meiji period, with data from Gifu prefecture. Quantitative and qualitative evidence suggests that the observed merger pattern can be explained as a social optimum based on a very simple individual utility function. If individual villages had been allowed to choose their merger partners, counterfactual simulations show that the core is always non-empty, but core partitions contain about 80% more (post-merger) municipalities than the social optimum. Substantial inefficiency occurs only due to a combination of vertical and horizontal heterogeneity, and efficiencies of scale and congestion in the provision of public services.